September 26, 2014

the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons

September 26, 2014, was the first International Day for Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. People around the world celebrated the vision of a nuclear weapons free world, raised awareness and called on the world leaders to negotiate disarmament.

On Sep 26, we asked people around the world:

— How many nuclear weapons do you think are in the world?
— And how many should there be?

To browse videos sent by people from around the world, click the playlist icon in the left top corner of the video player, or open the playlist on Youtube.

Events around the world

People around the world organized events to commemorate the International Day for Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, September 26, 2014.

INTERNATIONAL

Launch of CALL TO ACTION: Spring/Autumn 2015 mobilisation for a nuclear-free, fair, democratic, ecologically sustainable and peaceful future. On September 26, the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, along with a number of NGO networks, launches a new campaign aiming to mobilise civil society around the world in the northern hemisphere spring (southern hemisphere autumn) of 2015. The campaign calls governments to commit to a process for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons when they meet at the United Nations in New York in April-May 2015 for the 5-year review of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The campaign will include events in New York (a march, conference and lobbying at the United Nations) and in capitals around the world. See the Spring Autumn Mobilisation Press Release and the NPT Call to Action.

Global Zero launched a Twitter campaign to remind President @BarackObama that nuclear weapons are inhumane weapons of mass destruction. Inspired by the popular card game “Cards Against Humanity”, the campaign uses the hashtag #NukesAgainstHumanity. Starting Friday Sep 26 morning, Global Zero encourages you to tweet at President Obama reasons why nuclear weapons are not a game. Keeping in line with the game format for Cards Against Humanity, we’ll prompt the public with a fill in the blank game-card “I can’t sleep at night because _______.” and ask for responses to be directed at @BarackObama. Sample tweets:

Australia

Sydney: Friday 26th September 5:00-6:30 pm. THE DAY THE WORLD NEARLY ENDED: INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT DAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1983/2014. Learn how the world nearly ended on September 26, 1983 due to faulty early-warning signals from Soviet satellites to the Serpukhov-15 nuclear command and control center, indicating an incoming US nuclear attack with ballistic missiles. Discussion and film clip from the soon-to-be-released film ‘The Man Who Saved the World. Keynote Speaker: Jane Singleton, Director, Sydney Peace Foundation with John Hallam and Prof. Peter King of the Human Survival Project. Organized by: People for Nuclear Disarmament (PND) and The Human Survival Project. Contact/RSVP peter.king@sydney.edu.au (0422 647 025), johnhallam2011@yahoo.com.au.

Bangladesh

Dakha, Friday September 26, Bangladesh Parliament. Parliamentary event to commemorate the International Day Launch for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Includes launch of the Bangladesh section of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament. Contact Saber Chowdhury saber.chowdhury@gmail.com

CANADA

Toronto. Science for Peace created a simple bookmark sized flyer featuring a QR code. When the code is scanned with a cell phone it takes students to a website featuring videos and information on nuclear disarmament. About 6000 flyers have been distributed at universities in Toronto. Contact: Rob Acheson, robach@rogers.com

China

Hong Kong and Macau. Series of lectures at twenty middle/high schools on the horrors of nuclear war, focusing on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims of the US nuclear bomb testing on humans. Contact person: Fr. Jim Thomas, ecomonitorshk@yandex.com

COSTA RICA

Congresspeople in the Costa Rican National Assembly are going to lodge a motion to support the day. IPPNW Costa Rica will join the global call for action to raise awareness about nuclear weapons, and to highlight the global public support for nuclear disarmament by gathering messages from people from the University of Costa Rica by asking: “How many nuclear weapons do you think are in the world?” and “How many should there be?” IPPNW Costa Rica will also post photos to Instagram with the hashtags #goodbyenukes and #thecourageto for the ICAN´s Tumblr campaign leading up to Vienna conference. IPPNW Costa Rica will send an email to Ban Ki Moon, Angela Kane and Valerie Amos, demanding that the United Nations calls for a ban on nuclear weapons to be negotiated as soon as possible. Contact: Alexandra Arce, alexarcevh@yahoo.com, (506) 83864313.

CZECH REPUBLIC

Prague, Sep 26, 17:00. Drumming flash mob for nuclear disarmament at nam. Republiky. Part of the events of the Month for Peace and Nonviolence organized by the international humanist organisation World without Wars and Violence. Click for more info. Contact: Tana Bednarova, info@svetbezvalek.cz, +420604983875

JAPAN

Tokyo, September 26. National conference to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. First Office Building of the House of Representatives (Parliament),Tokyo. Organised by the Japan Council against A & H Bombs (GENSUIKYO), phone: +81-3-5842-6034, fax: +81-3-5842-6033, Email: antiatom@topaz.plala.or.jp The conference will focus on the damage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bombings, and on initiatives from Mexico and the Marshall Islands, including the recent case lodged in the International Court of Justice against the nine nuclear-armed States on compliance with their nuclear disarmament obligations.

Various locations, September 26. Photo exhibition and signature drive in 47 Japanese prefectures. Local sections of Gensuikyo will hold public events featuring the A-Bomb exhibition and gathering of signatures on the “Appeal for a Total Ban on Nuclear Weapons.” The appeal calls for a convention banning nuclear weapons as put forward by the UN Secretary-General and endorsed by the UN General Assembly. The appeal is being promoted with a poster featuring the support of prominent Japanese personalities. Contact antiatom@topaz.plala.or.jp

Indonesia

Yogyakarta, Sunday September 28, 06:00. Funbike for the celebration of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Departing from the historic building of the Universitas Gadjah Mada, ending at the Kilometer Zero of the city, the participants will stop in different checkpoints and do various campaign activities: video recording and photo taking, public engagement, hand-print petition and human posters. Contact: Muhadi Sugiono at msugiono@ugm.ac.id or Didi at diahtricesaria@gmail.com.

INDIA

Lucknow. Students of City Montessori School (CMS) will actively in participate by raising their voices in support of the International Day for Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. CMS Founder Manager and World Unity Educator, Dr Jagdish Gandhi will be addressing the students and will call for total elimination of nuclear weapons. CMS is the world’s largest school with nearly 50,000 students as per Guinness Book and is the only school to receive the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education in 2002. Contact: Shishir Srivastava, Head, International Relations, City Momtessori School, Lucknow, India. www.cmseducation.org, shishir.srivastava@cmseducation.org, +919956523456.

ITALY

Pavia, Septeber 26. Pavia Senzatomica. Transforming the Human Spirit for a world free from nuclear weapons exhibition. Its goals are informing, empowering and make common people think. It is extremely important that people are aware of the actual reality of nuclear weapons, as nuclear weapons are on the top of the pyramid of violence. And people should understand that it is their right and duty to express their opinion, in order to speak out about such a close subject to them. Now it is the time to unleash courage and stimulate common people’s action to create an indomitable peacekeeping force. Schools and local governments can work together in order to display the exhibition in their regions. Also, it is designed as an educational tool for all age ranges. On the 26th will be inaugurated in the city of Pavia (north Italy). The event name is “Pavia Senzatomica”. [“Senzatomica” literally means “Without the atomic”] Since 2011 we displayed this exhibition in 36 cities all around Italy reaching more than 144.000 visitors of which more than 47.000 are students of primary and secondary school. 8 other exhibitions are planned before the end of 2014 and 12 in the first half of 2015. Contact: Daniele Santi, daniele.santi@sgi-italia.org, +393394175397

NEPAL

Dharan, Bpkihs Nepal. September 25, 5:30 PM. Medical students, doctors and civil society will be discussing on role of non-nuclear states like Nepal in pressuring the nuclear states to give up their weapons and making South Asia free of nuclear weapons. Also discussion how to make a “South Asian nuclear-free zone” and how to raise this topic in the upcoming SAARC conference (South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation) in November and make foreign ministers of these countries show commitment and pass a declaration. Contact: Bimal Khadka, bml_roadhouse08@yahoo.com, +9779842174998

NORWAY

IPPNW Norway has contributed to the UN abolition day in the following ways:

An interview in The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK. The Norwegian National News Agency NTB and the newspaper Klassekampen have also been informed.

An article about the abolition day, its historical background, the presently increasing need for nuclear disarmament and dealert, and the international arenas where Norway can contribute to nuclear abolition has been accepted for publication on 26. September in a major regional newspaper Adresseavisen (Norway’s oldest newspaper).

The article has been posted in letters to the eight political parties in the Parliament.

SPAIN

Barcelona, Friday September 26, 19:00. FundiPau (Foundation for Peace) will join the dozens of organizations around the world celebrating the Nuclear Abolition Day, with an event in Barcelona. We’ll meet in the port of the city, called Portal de la Pau (Peace Portal) at 19.00h and draw the attention of the people with a group of drummers playing the drums. Then, some representatives of FundiPau will do a brief speech and we’ll read a statement claiming for a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. Then, from a boat located in the midst of the port water, 69 people will launch 69 balloons in the shape of dove of peace (in memoriam of the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, 69 years ago). We’ll also distribute some flyers with information of the campaign and we’ll launch a new page in our website dedicated to the nuclear arms campaign. Contact: Lourdes Vergés, www.fundipau.org, 93 302 51 29

United States

United Nations, New York.September 26, 10:30. Ministerial meeting on the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Trusteeship Council, 10:30 – 13:00. Hosted by the President of the UN General Assembly and the Permanent Mission of Indonesia to the UN (on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement).The event will be opened by the President of the UNGA. Angela Kane, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, will deliver a message from the UN Secretary-General. This will be followed by interventions by a number of Foreign Ministers many of whom are in New York at this time for the Climate Summit and opening plenary of the United Nations General Assembly. There will also be an opportunity for a few civil society interventions.

New York, September 26. Film showing Barefoot Gen. The New School for Public Engagement. Contact N.A.J. Taylor hi@najtaylor.com

Berkeley, Friday September 26, 6:00-8:30pm.The Nuclear Threat, Yesterday and Today: A Workshop on Nuclear Weapons. Evening of analysis and discussion, reviewing the state of the world’s nuclear arsenals, their role in the global economy and in growing great power confrontations, and new approaches to disarmament. Organized by the Western States Legal Foundation (WSLF) and the Western Institute for Social Research (WISR). Program:

Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century: An overview of the world’s nuclear arsenals, the relationship of conventional to nuclear arms-racing and the forces driving the risk of war among nuclear-armed countries today. — Andrew Lichterman, Senior Research Analyst, WSLF.

North of Tlateloco: A retrospective on the 1967 Tlatelolco Treaty which established the first nuclear weapon free zone, in Latin America and the Caribbean , its meaning then and now, and its significance for new cross-border organizing approaches linking disarmament to broader movements for economic justice and ecological sustainability. — Marcia Campos, PhD, WISR Faculty and WSLF Board Member.

Organizing for Abolition: A report on international disarmament forums and organizing efforts, including the Haifa Conference on a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the Middle East. — Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director of WSLF.

Jim Walsh is a Research Associate in MIT’s Security Studies Program. He is an expert in international security and has been to both Iran and North Korea to discuss nuclear issues. He testified in Congress and written many articles and books about nuclear weapons. He will talk about his recent meeting with Iran’s President Rouhani, the current situation of the nuclear weapons states, and the challenges and opportunities facing disarmament.

Elaine Scarry is the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. Scarry is the author of eight books, most recently Thermonuclear Monarchy. In it, she contends that nuclear weapons eliminate the citizenry and the legislature from the sphere of decision-making about war. Scarry shows how elements of the US Constitution can be used as tools to abolish nuclear weapons.

Santa Barbara, Thursday 25 September, 6:30-8:30pm. Film Screening: Nuclear Savage. About the catastrophic environmental and health consequences of nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands and on how the US used the Marshallese people for human-radiation experiments. Santa Barbara Public Library. 6:30-8:30pm. Contact: Rick Wayman, rwayman@napf.org, +1 (805) 965-3443.